Joaquin Murieta: The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit

This is an unique book in many ways. It was the first novel published in California, as well as the first novel written by a Native American. And it spawned both the myth of Joaquín Murieta as well as the "dime novels" industry of the nineteenth century that persists even today as the paperback Westerns found in every bookstore, newsstand, and even supermarket. It was truly a first in that regard.

But it is worth reading for more than those reasons -- it is a colorful and romantic story that fires the imagination of the reader, portraying in no uncertain terms what life was like during the California Gold Rush of 1850's.